A visit from Mimi!!

My mom came to visit for a long weekend and we couldn't have been happier! Every time she visits it's the same, very busy, little down time, lots of shopping, eating out, walking and catch up. This time was no different and I wouldn't have it any other way!!




On Saturday we went to cheer on the Jayhawks and watched the game at Champs over a yummy lunch.




McClellan loved watching the game and cheering on the 'hawks to victory!

We went to breakfast at Snooze...and waited, and waited, and waited...

Until finally, two hours later we were finally eating! McClellan shared blueberry pancakes with Mimi and loved every bite!

We took advantage of the good weather and spent an afternoon at Wash Park.

McClellan loved the swinging as usual!

She and Matt tried out the slides...she loved those too!!

But the swing is still her favorite by far!

Her all-time favorite activity was spending time with her Mimi though...and Mimi was happy to oblige!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Everyone!!

I was supposed to pull a June Cleaver and make super cute "Lovebug cupcakes" for McClellan's daycare party...but as you can see the Working Mom won/lost out and they ended up being plain ol' chocolate cupcakes with a super quick icing heart and sprinkles on top. Oh well...there's always next year, right?



I went into work late that morning so that I could see McClellan when she woke up and bring her down to see her Valentine's presents. I never get to see her in the morning so this was my Valentine's present to myself!

My mom always put our gifts on the table so we'd see them when we came down on Valentine's morning. I loved that so much I decided I'd do the same thing with McClellan.

I got Matt some of his favorite beer and McClellan got him a Rockies shirt in hopes that he'll take her to a game or two this summer!

Matt and McClellan got me a cartridge for my Cricut-can't wait to break it open and create some fun layouts with it! Thanks guys!


McClellan was happy and excited about her new bath toys. Now that she's bathing in the big girl tub I decided she needed some toys to play with in there!

That night we took pictures with all of the cards she received and with this super cute hat that Miss Brandi, one of her "teachers" made her-she reminds me of Minnie Pearl in these and that makes me laugh!

She seems to be thinking "You have to be kidding me, Mom...enough is enough."

Sorry kiddo, you're just too darn cute and I'm just too darn in love with you! Thanks for to you and your Daddy for being the best Valentine's a Mom/Wife could ever wish for!

Time for a Big Girl Bath!!

Long overdue, McClellan had her first "Big Girl Bath" this morning. She's been out growing her infant tub for quite some time but I wasn't quite ready for this yet...today was the day!

I think you can tell by the look on her face that McClellan did not object at all.


Her favorite thing was splashing, splashing and more splashing. There was water everywhere!



She loves being in the big tub, but wow, keeping her contained and in one place is a chore! She crawled all over the tub, kicking, splashing and laughing the entire time.

HUGE success!

Blueberry Pancakes EVERYWHERE!!

This morning I made homemade blueberry pancakes for us. Even thought McClellan had already had her breakfast we decided to let her try some...well, needless to say it was Round 2 breakfast for Punky! She went to town on the pancakes!




She loves blueberries already, so I wasn't all that surprised that she loved blueberry pancakes.



She's been doing such a great job of feeding herself, but this was probably the messiest food we've had so far. When I give her blueberries, they aren't cooked and really don't make that big of a mess. Cooked blueberries however...HUGE mess.

Messy...big mess! "Who me?"

She was fascinated with the blueberry stain all over her hands! Despite the mess, the pancakes were a huge success!

9 months old already!

Here we are, another month has gone by and I swear that time just keeps moving faster! This past month seemed to have gone by the fastest. McClellan seemed to change so much and do so many new things this month!

January 10th we started "Big Girl Crawling"-no more army crawling! She is so fast, we are amazed at how she gets from point A to point B in no time at all! It's scary. We bought a gate, although not for a week or two after this...we still need more but for now are getting by with containing her downstairs in the lower level where she plays mostly.

Now that she's crawling all over the place she is also pulling up on things and standing on her own for a few seconds. We've also seen, on a few occasions, her pull up and then take a few steps holding on to things.

McClellan now has four teeth on the bottom and is working on some teeth up top as well. The drool is flowing non-stop these days at our house.

We had our first introduction to Pink Eye, and it super, duper sucks. I ended up getting it too and it royally sucked. The drops burnt my eyes so I can only imagine how McClellan felt when I put them in her eyes 3x's a day! Boo!

McClellan's favorite foods right now are, well, pretty much anything you put in front of her! She's a fabulous eater! So far there is nothing that she hasn't liked. She loves blueberries & turkey right now and wouldn't turn a green bean down if you paid her!

We have been giving her more and more "real" food and letting her feed herself & she loves it! The other night Matt put a roast in the crock pot, along with some carrots and potatoes. I pulled some out and gave some of each to McClellan and she went to town! She absolutely *loved* every single bite! We won't be leaving baby food completely behind-I'll still be giving her oatmeal/multi grain cereal & the baby food that I've made, we'll just start incorporating more finger foods into her meals as well.

So far McClellan has eaten:

Squash-every kind imaginable-Butternut, Acorn, Guatemalan Blue, Spaghetti

Plums

Pears

Apples-we made *tons* of crock pot applesauce with all of our CSA apples and it was a HUGE hit

Blueberries-fresh and also in pancakes

Cheese

Turkey

Pork Roast

Carrots

Potatoes

Green Beans

Peas

Spinach

Sweet Potatoes

Yams

Teething Biscuits (Earth's Best) messy as all get out but McClellan loves them

Puffs (Happy Baby-Greens, Apple & Banana)

Yogurt Melts (Happy Baby Mango Banana so far)

Pickles-dill

Grilled Cheese-with Dill Pickles of course!

French Fries (shame on me)

McClellan is "talking" a lot more these days-lots of "Dada" and a few "Mama's." She babbles non-stop it seems! She even "sings" if you're singing or if there is music on. It's pretty darn funny! Music is a big deal in this house so she hears music all the time. Matt said the other day he was playing some Almond Brothers and she was "singing" along with "Midnight Rider." Pretty impressive for a 9 month old don't you think?

You know what they say, "Time flies when you're having fun," and we're having plenty of fun these days!!

Two visits to the Pediatrician in One Week

When I got McClellan up Tuesday night to change her diaper she was really hot-I took her temperature and she was at 101.7. We gave her Tylenol and decided to see what the morning brought.

Wednesday-the morning came and brought us matted eyes, a fever still and some a super snotty nose.

Matt took her to the Pediatrician and I headed to work and waited for him to call me.

"Pink Eye"-those were the first words out of Matt's mouth when he called me later that morning. Fabulous. Super powered eye drops and she should be better, no longer contagious in 24 hours.

I decided to come home for the afternoon so that Matt could go to work...but then a few hours before I left the office I started to feel like total hell. Soon I was feeling like I'd been beaten with a bat, light headed, aches, feverish, sore throat...basically like total hell.

So I came home, went straight to bed and Matt stayed home too, taking care of a very fussy McClellan.

Thursday-McClellan's eye still is full of goop and she's super snotty still. I'm still feeling like hell. Matt's at work all day.

Friday/Today-I'm convinced that she should be better by now & she's not. So I call the Pediatrician's Office again and off we go for an appointment at 8:45 this morning.

Now, McClellan has an ear infection & they are concerned about this being the start of RSV. No good. No good at all.

AND...if she gets another ear infection in the next month or two they are going to start testing her for a low immunity system.

That's what has me really upset today. Is it possible that my little girl has something REALLY wrong with her? I've been doing research on how to boost her immune system but all suggestions I'm finding include things that she's too young to have yet-honey, nuts, etc.

If anyone is reading this and has any suggestions...please, please, please send them my way.

2010 - A Review

2010 has come and gone, frankly it flew by for us!! I thought it would be fun to take a look back over the past year and look at a few of the highlights.

JANUARY:
It was all about getting the storage/craft room packed up and cleared out. This is the room that would become the nursery. I'm embarrassed to show these pictures-what a mess!! But I was in the middle of going through it all and tossing or packing things.

FEBRUARY:

~Matt and I took our annual trip to Estes Park-we picked up some yummy treats and enjoyed fondue one night, another tradition for this trip.

We also went snowshoeing our last day in Estes-the snow was perfect!! It was absolutely gorgeous that day.

Here I am-snowshoeing at 31 weeks pregnant!

MARCH:

~This was the month of baby showers hosted by amazing friends and co-workers!!

First was my shower at work-this cake was insanely amazing, I can still taste it!!

My good friend Derrick - out of all my guy friends, he was by far the most excited for us. He's a dad of two girls himself.

Theresa, my friend, co-worker and host of this shower-Thanks lady!!

East Side Shower-hosted by Ann, Stephanie and Robin (sadly she had to leave before we took these pictures!) Thanks ladies-for spoiling me and for all the great gifts and advice!

And one more...my sister and good friend Amy had a shower for me with all my former co-workers & friends. I never get a chance to see these ladies so this was fun!!

Maegan, Amy & I - this cake was gorgeous and was the most yummy lemon cake I'd ever tasted-YUM!! Not only that, it was gorgeous!! I'm not a "typical" baby shower cake kinda gal so this was perfect!

Opening the quilt my sister handmade me. Yes, you read that right. Maegan handmade me this quilt-LOVE it!

The group - fabulous friends!

APRIL:

~This month was all about finishing up the nursery-here's Matt putting the finishing touches on the clouds.

The tree is done!! Thanks to my friend Andrea for hooking us up with the projector!! We used that to draw the basic idea on the wall and then we free-handed the rest. Some of the leaves are covered in the fabric pieces left over from the quilt my sister made.

We also picked out "coming home from the hospital outfits"-as you can see there is one for a girl and one for a boy. We didn't find out what we were having so had to be prepared with both!

By mid-April my feet were hurting. Look at this nasty photo of my feet one night after work!! I would come home from work and take my shoes off and then go sit in the nursery to relax. I can't believe that I am showing you this again-once was enough wasn't it?

MAY:
~Still not making any progress, and about 10 days overdue, we checked into the hospital on May 2, 2010 to be induced. This was our last picture before starting the cytotec (cervix ripening) and getting the show on the road.

24 hours later, after stalling out at 6cm and the baby showing signs of distress...we went in for a c-section.

IT'S A GIRL!! McClellan Wynn Millner was born at 8:34pm weighing 9lbs 7oz & 21 3/4" long

This was the first picture as she was pulled out. When Matt said "It's a girl", I was shocked!! I really thought we'd have a boy, even though I'd been having girl dreams the few months leading up to her arrival.

Our first family photo-just minutes after McClellan arrived!

5 days later we were home - the neighbors had decorated the entire front of our house with pink "It's a girl" signage, balloons, and banners.

First Mother's Day - we got out for a walk and enjoyed the beautiful weather, and our even more beautiful little girl.

JUNE:

~Happy 1st Father's Day Matt!! We celebrated by taking him up for BBQ in Bailey.

JULY:

~McClellan and I went on a road trip to Kansas-she was perfect, sleeping pretty much the entire way!

Matt met us there a week later and we headed to KC for some Oklahoma Joe's BBQ-seriously yummy!!

Looking at this picture it dawns on me that this was the last weekend that McClellan used her pacifier. She really was never big on it anyway but we thought that we'd let her hang on to it while we had her out of her element.

Of course while back in Lawrence we had to take McClellan up to campus and start indoctrinating her in the Jayhawk culture-she fit right in with her Rock Chalk onesie and is without a doubt a true Jayhawk!

At the end of the month we headed to Breckenridge for a last weekend getaway before I headed back to work. The weather was lousy-cloudy and rainy the entire time, but we managed to get a few photos to capture the highlights.

AUGUST:

~I went back to work in August and honestly thought my heart was being ripped out of my chest. It was a rough month to say the least.

My sister came out the first week and took care of McClellan and then the second week Matt stayed home with her-that was a HUGE life saver in helping me get back to work without totally losing my mind.

Just a few pictures of McClellan in her total cuteness-the tutu is courtesy of her Auntie Mae. My sister went shopping daily with McClellan while she was out here. McClellan practically had a new outfit for each day between her Mimi and Aunt Maegan!

SEPTEMBER:

~McClellan had her first park experience and loved it. Not only did she look insanely adorable but she totally was digging the swing and being outside!

Mimi came to town in September also!! We had a great time together and there was more shopping of course...I'm telling you my child will never hurt for clothes with my Mom and Sister around!!

McClellan's first farm trip!! She loved the chickens that lived in the school buses at Grant Farms in Wellington, CO - they are responsible for the yummy CSA produce we rave about.

We took McClellan on her first hike in Rocky Mountain National Park - my sister and her family came out and we headed up to Estes for the day.

Family Photo time:

OCTOBER:

~McClellan went to her first Pumpkin Patch out at May Farms-love this place!! Tons of pumpkins to choose from but we already had the cutest pumpkin in the patch!

McClellan was busy this month-between the normal fall activities she also kept busy campaigning for best baby ever. She won of course-no competition!! (And yes, I'm totally biased people)

My sister and Keeton came back out for a visit and we hit up another pumpkin patch.

McClellan's first Halloween - and so she of course was the cutest pumpkin ever, ever, ever!!

NOVEMBER:

~My whole family met up in Estes Park for Thanksgving. We've done this before but this year was special having McClellan with us.

I even made my first pie!! I actually don't like pie, seriously. Each year I try to make something from my Grandma Ellestad's recipe collection, this year it was her pie crust with pitted pie cherries from Grant Farms-everyone said it was uber yummy so guess I'll believe them!

DECEMBER:

~We kept with tradition and headed to the mountains to find the perfect Christmas tree. McClellan loved it-this was her first time in the backpack carrier and she did great!

McClellan's first Christmas!! She was so excited and loved all the lights and sounds of the season.

We were blessed, and spoiled, yet again this year at Christmas. The truth is, we got our Christmas present back in May and nothing could really compare to the gift of our daughter.

As we kick off the new year and look forward to what 2011 will bring us, it's been fun to look at a few of the highlights of what is now "last year." So much has happened and so much has changed for us. We are so lucky.

I have no doubt that 2011 will continue to bring us blessings and lots of photo opportunities. I look forward to them all!!